Columns

As we near the end of February, the General Assembly has a predictably full agenda heading into what is always its busiest month of the year.

Enacting a budget to run state government remains our biggest task. The House Appro-priations and Revenue Committee is right on schedule, however, with its seven budget review subcommittees close to finishing their modifications of Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposal. A vote by the full chamber will be held by early March.

We have passed the midpoint of the General Assembly, and the activity has continued to be energetic and fast-paced. I welcomed guests from my district and enjoyed seeing the constituents. It was also nice to see some decent weather come our way in the Capitol city.

The Senate took up historic legislation this week in House Bill 70, which would restore voting rights certain to felons after five years removed from their sentence.

Champions for a Drug Free Carroll County will be hosting our annual town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 6 at the General Butler State Resort Park Convention Center. Each year Champions holds a town hall meeting to bring awareness to one specific drug or issue that Carroll County may be facing. With death statistics rising due to heroin, this year’s topic was a simple choice.

Children are an essential part of our library. Their presence can be seen from the time we open until the time we close. They range in age from very small babies to high school seniors.

Our goal is to try to have something useful and meaningful for all children in our community. Early literacy is a place where we feel we can use our time and resources to assist our parents and schools. This is accomplished in several different ways.

One of the country’s great success stories over the last several decades has been the steep and steady decline in highway fatalities.

It’s a welcome trend that has been especially pronounced here in Kentucky. According to the state’s Office of Highway Safety, you have to go back to 1949 to find a year that had fewer than the commonwealth had in 2013.

This week, as you all know, we lost a great person in our community, Bruce Westrick.

I didn’t know him well yet. In a small way, I was given the grace to be able to penetrate this man’s heart and value him for the great example that he was. I was always impressed with his happiness and positive outlook.

He came to Mass at St. John on Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. He would sit on the bench at the back of the church.

Seven years after the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to raise the state’s minimum wage, the Kentucky House of Representatives returned to the issue on Thursday when it passed legislation that follows a similar path taken by that 2007 law.

This is an issue that is drawing a lot of attention across the country. The National Conference of State Legislatures says 23 states considered raising it in 2013, and Kentucky is one of 20 doing the same this year, with more expected in the months ahead.

February opened with snow and ice across most of Kentucky. I hope you and yours are safe. As crews are out working all hours of the night, and utility workers restoring power to the many areas that lost it, I am reminded of, and appreciate, the people that are out working in these tough and hazardous conditions.

Despite the tough conditions in travel, the Senate continued working with a full week of committee hearings and bills that came to the Senate floor for vote.